"Pieces of the Island"-An English Translation

Caridad Gutierrez

The former political prisoner Raúl Luis Risco Pérez, from the Pinar del Rio Democratic Alliance, declared that this past Sunday, July 8th, four Ladies in White were arrested by the political police as they tried to make it to Sunday Mass in the municipality of San Juan and Martinez and that two of these arrests were carried out in a very violent fashion.

The detainess were Caridad Gutiérrez, Yaima Cordero Fernández, Elaida Quiñones and Noralys Martin Hernández. The latter suffered a miscarriage during the beginning of 2012 after being physically assaulted by political police officials. Since then, the repression against her and her family has been constant.

During the arrest of these 4 Ladies in White, Noralys Martin Hernandez and Elaida were “arrested in a very violent manner“, explained Raul Luis Risco, adding that they were “shoved into police vehicles and taken to police units” because they were peacefully resisting the arrest and continued to insist on going to church.

Along with these female activists, the vice-president of the Pinar del Rio Democratic Alliance and husband of Noralys Hernandez, Jose Rolando Casares Soto, was arrested as he accompanied the women and also had plans to attend Mass.

Risco reports that, “Casares Soto was arrested violently as well, and then taken to the National Revolutionary Police unit nearby, where officials threatened to apply the Social Dangerousness Law on him, or Law 88, best known as ‘The Gag Law‘”.

Non-violent acts of opposition and resistance have been increasing throughout the past few months in the island’s Western region of Pinar del Rio province, affirmed Raul Risco.